Roundtable. Creating caring societies: rethinking gender justice and the policies and politics of care.

Abstract

A caring society is one where care work is valued, distributed equally among its members and where those who need care are cared for. Such a society could be regarded not only as gender just but also leading to the eradication of class and racial disparities in caregiving and receiving. Elaborating on notions of care, feminists have identified several strategies to reach such an ideal: making an economic case for care and moving it to the public sphere, ‘commoning’ care to eliminate the division between paid and unpaid activities, envisioning a care movement encompassing paid and unpaid carers and care receivers, and expanding care discourses to incorporate global care drains and the planet and all its inhabitants. These are just a few illustrations of the different directions care research and activism have taken; yet, care work around the globe continues to be underpaid, made invisible and transferred onto the shoulders of those who lack economic, political and social power. Building on the rich feminist scholarship on care, this roundtable reflects on the possibilities and alternatives for transforming care work. Drawing on empirical and theoretical developments, it will explore pressing questions relating to the politics, policy and the end-goals of a caring society. From a normative perspective, it will present various principles of good care relating to gender and the multiple inequalities in relations of care. From a policy perspective, it will discuss care policies from a non-instrumentalist perspective, which both acknowledges and moves beyond motherhood to recognize care needs as intrinsic to the human condition. From a political perspective, it will examine avenues to increasing the power and influence of diverse organizations of care actors. Together, these presentations illuminate a transformative agenda for care research and practice.

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